"Gay Marriage" Advances in Finland

[Idaho Kid]

Finnish Parliament narrowly votes for "gay marriage". But still more hurdles before final passage. Fight continues!

After vote: 12.000 leave Finnish Lutheran Church over pro-gay marriage remarks by Archbishop!
POSTED: December 8, 2014

On Friday, Nov. 28, the Finnish Parliament narrowly passed a "gay marriage" bill by 105-92. Homosexual activists and mainstream news outlets around the world were celebrating, declaring Finland to be the "12th European country" to legalize it. This has caused a firestorm among the country's conservatives.

But unlike in other European countries, due to the intricacies of the Finnish legislative system it could still be stopped or rescinded before its effective date of 2017 (when "gay marriages" would officially begin). It must pass in Parliament again (see description below) before it is "final."

The vote came after 2½ years of attempts by the homosexual lobby to bring it before the full Parliament. It was stalled twice in committee. In  2013 the homosexual lobby was forced to gather 166,000 signatures to get it back into Parliament after being rejected.

Up until the end, both sides were lobbying very hard. As we reported earlier, the MassResistance video on "What 'gay marriage' did to Massachusetts" was broadcast nationally at least twice, and we also supplied other lobbying materials to the religious coalition.

Media and money helped push it

As here in the United States, the same-sex marriage movement is propelled by a friendly mainstream media and huge funding and support from large corporations, as well as well-funded LGBT advocacy groups.

In this case, the vote in Parliament was likely pushed over the top by an overwhelming pro-gay marriage media blitz. As the coalition leader emailed to us:

Yes, we were defeated 105-92 in parliament voting. I think the main cause for that is the media. Popular TV and other media sources are all propagating same sex marriage . . . and behind it is the big money.

Major corporations in Finland jumped right into fight. According to one news report:

[A]pproximately 700 Finnish companies, including telecommunications giant TeliaSonera, signed a petition to Parliament to show their support [for the bill] and took to social media to raise awareness, with one travel agency offering a free honeymoon trip to the first couple to be married.

It's eerie how large corporations invariably line up on only the bad side of the "culture war." That's why they must be confronted the same as politicians.

During the months leading up to the vote, the Archbishop of the Finnish Lutheran Church supported the idea of same-sex marriage in many of his public communications. But immediately after the vote he posted on Facebook, "I rejoice with my whole heart" in the bill's passage, and went on to say that "our concept of marriage needs a fundamental examination." That really got people's attention.


The remarks by Archbishop Kari Mäkinen about marriage outraged thousands of Finns.

It sent a wave of anger of anger and outrage across the country. Within a day, according to news reports, nearly 8,000 Finns had officially resigned from the Finnish Lutheran Church using an online web service. By the following Thursday 12,000 had resigned. Since the Lutheran Church is funded by obligatory church membership taxes from church members, each defection has a financial impact on the church.

This is likely just the beginning of the backlash. Among other things, there is great anxiety about the adoption of children by "married" homosexual couples (currently in Finland homosexual couples may not adopt children). There is also a fear that the churches will eventually be required to perform homosexual "weddings."

There is no question that religious people in Finland are passionate about this issue.

After the vote, Päivi Räsänen, the head of the Finnish Christian Democrat Party (a key part of the ruling coalition in Parliament) told the press that they will take whatever steps necessary to derail the bill before its final passage.


Päivi Räsänen, the head of the Finnish Christian Democrat Party, is determined to stop the same-sex marriage bill.
   
She also attacked the Finnish Prime Minister for making remarks in support of same-sex marriage prior to the vote in Parliament and probably swaying many members, saying that the remarks were not representative of all the parties in the coalition.

Back in October, she reportedly had threatened to pull her party out of the coalition if the gay marriage bill passed, but apparently reconsidered that action.

In addition, the nationalist Finns Party, the main opposition party in Parliament, is also looking to overturn the law before it goes into effect, according to news reports. Their leader, Timo Soini, described parliament's vote to legalize gay marriage as "damaging", saying that "this will be the first time we make it normal for children to be removed from their biological roots."

More at http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen2/14d/Finland-Parliament-vote-1128/index.html